Published in 1978 and reissued in 2022, Harry Crews, an American novelist recounts the first five years of his life. He grew up in south Georgia, the son of dirt-poor sharecroppers in the 1930s. Stories flow from the pages (listen to the audiobook to get the full impact) like a stream meandering in the gulley at the edge of a sparse cotton field. One room shacks become theaters for orators and minstrels, itinerant salesmen and magical healers. Upstanding Black neighbors care for Harry while his family disintegrates, and a formerly enslaved Grandmother imparts the wisdom of a century (or however old she might be, she doesn’t know.) Pigs are slaughtered, hams are stolen from smokehouses by hungry neighbors, and broken down mules pull plows through exhausted soil. All before Harry turns five.
Without electricity, and therefore without a television, radio, or addicting cellphone, Harry grew up with an extraordinarily creative imagination for play. His acumen as a storyteller is so confoundingly good, it is impossible to find the seams between the end of one tale and the beginning of the next.